1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to applications involving the Internet, and in particular, to a system and method for providing notification of real-world events over the Internet using digital images.
2. Description of Related Art
Currently, so-called push systems are broadly used in several Internet applications. Companies such as PointCast(trademark) are dedicated to the development and enhancement of Internet push technologies. In addition, Microsoft introduced the notion of channels with its Internet Explorer Version 4, wherein channels allow people to subscribe to Web sites, news lists, and the like, and receive notification when certain events occur. For example, these events may be news or other updates, and the notifications may occur via channels or email.
In the prior art, however, these events are triggered when changes occur to stored digital content. For example, a user can subscribe to a notification service for stock prices. The user identifies a stock and/or price event trigger for such a notification service by filling out an electronic HTML form on the stock service""s Web site. This information is then stored in a database by the stock service""s Web site, and the user is later notified via emails generated by the stock service""s Web site when the price of the identified stock increases or decreases. Of course, both the stock price and the event triggers are stored in digital form in the database by the Web site.
However, there are no known systems that provide computer-based notification services about xe2x80x9creal worldxe2x80x9d events that are not based on changes to digital content. For example, a parent working at their office cannot be notified via the Internet that their baby is crying at home. Nonetheless, the advent of the Internet holds the promise for resolving these and other problems. More specifically, the present invention solves these problems by providing computer-based notifications of real world events using digital images.
To overcome the limitations in the prior art described above, and to overcome other limitations that will become apparent upon reading and understanding the present specification, the present invention discloses a method, apparatus, and article of manufacture for providing computer-based notifications of real world events over a network. The system includes client computers, proxy server computers, and device server computers. The proxy server computer receives notification profiles including both sensor conditions and associated actions from the client computers. The notification profiles are then stored in a user and profile database on the proxy server computer. The proxy server computer receives an indication from a sensor that a real world event has occurred, and then matches the received indication against the sensor conditions in the stored notification profiles. The associated actions are performed in response to a match between the received indication and the sensor conditions, wherein the associated actions include transmitting a notification message to one or more of the client computers and the notification message includes a digital image of the real world event.